Saturday, February 5, 2011

N is for Naan

On more than a few occasions have I referred to my obsession/love/passion/craving for yeast...odd though that may seem to those who don't worship at the Church Of The Preheated Oven. I recently read this about yeast..."Yeast fungus (Saccharomyces) exists everywhere in nature, and natural yeast consists of microorganisms reproducing and eliminating waste." Ok, sure, not exactly a scenario that makes a guy run to the kitchen. But wait, it gets better...these tiny little buggers (there are about 10 billion of 'em per gram) are hungry and horny (interested yet?). Give them a few shots of glucose and they get wacky! And these creative, single-cell dudes are a clever, partying bunch - if you don't feed them straight shots of glucose but instead water down their drinks with other sugars, or starches or alcohol - they whip out an enzyme to match whatever you are serving and convert it to a deelish aphrodisiac buffet. So...give them a little food (flour, f'rinstance), and a little warm water (100 degrees ideally, mmm) to swim around in - and the party is on! Before you know it, that intimate party with your closest 10 billion friends has turned into a veritable dough-orgy of eating, hydrating, passing gas, and making babies. Give them enough time, food and drink and they can make even the stiffest dough rise.

Seriously, what other food depends on the digestive and reproductive cycles of a critter to make it work. Without yeast bread is...a cracker. Of course, this Dionysian free-for-all in your bread dough does not have a happy ending..well, not for the yeast anyway. The Circle of Life applies even to single-celled horndogs. These guys are going at it nonstop, the party is really heating up - and I mean, really heating up because you popped that blob of party-bread in the oven. These doublebacked yeast-beasts are WILD - all that yeast gas is expanding, the dough is rising in the oven, the party is HOTHOTHOTTER...and then it hits 140 degrees. Ouch. The party...is over. 140 degrees is taps for yeast. But we don't despair. We love what yeast has done for us...the miracle of bread lives on - because 140 degrees is the same temperature when the starches and proteins in the bread start to set, so that Highrise Den of Sin the yeast built for themselves stays up even after they are gone, and finishes baking as a risen loaf of bread.

I'm not going to push, but given this intimate knowledge about yeast...I just have to ask, how can you not be a yeast-head? Bread doughs are living things. They are sensitive, and vulnerable to their environments. They depend on us to provide them with what they need. Even though I have spent the last many months trying to eliminate co-dependent tendencies in some aspects of my life, I admit that I am a card-carrying enabler for my single-celled little buddies.

But now, on to this Indian flatbread, naan. Take a peek at the recipe, you'll see that the dough contains both whole-milk and whole-milk yogurt. Holy cow. I won't go into the graphic details right now, but think about it...we are adding fat to this yeast-based orgy. When you add fat to a dough, the fat coats the gluten strands that provide much of the structure of the bread. Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi - now the yeasties have a slippery surface on which to do what they do - BUT, miracle of miracles, the balance of fat to structure in this recipe allows for a soft but cohesive and wonderfully workable dough to form. In this case, not only are the yeasty-beasties happy, but so is the baker, and so are the lucky Joe's who get to eat the soft, salty, seedy rich breads. Enjoy.

4. Pour yeast and milk mixtures into well in center of flour. Stir until a soft, shaggy dough forms.

5. Put approx. 1 cup of flour in a pile on the counter. Pull a little of that flour to the center of the counter, turn the dough out onto it, and knead for approx. 10 minutes. Gradually add small amounts of the extra flour when the dough gets sticky. (A plastic dough scraper works well for assisting with the kneading at the beginning of this process.)

6. When a soft, nonsticky dough is formed, shape it into a ball, and place it in the lightly oiled bowl. Let rise until doubled, approx 2 hours.

7. Place baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat as high as your oven will let you (500-550 degrees). Let the baking stone preheat for a full hour. Dust two baking sheets with flour, set aside.

9. Transfer a piece of the dough to a well-floured peel or flat baking sheet. Brush top of each piece with remaining melted butter. Sprinkle with mixed seeds and salt. Slide the bread directly onto the preheated baking stone.

10. Bake 5-6 minutes, until it is bubly and the top is a blotchy golden brown.